Saturday, 5/20/17

A really good day today.  It was cold, but I put my wool earmuffs on and my arm and leg warmers and off we went. 70 miles finds us in Hutchinson, Kansas.  Speaking of Kansas, I learned that they don't call the Arkansas river what most of the rest of us call the Arkansas River.  Here it is pronounced Ar- Kansas(as in the way the state of Kansas is pronounced). I rode through a wildlife refuge, which allowed me the pleasure of sighting a fox.  Earlier in the day I was lucky enough to witness a flock of wild turkeys waddling across the road.

It did rain a few times, and it was cold, but I finally got a bit of tailwind.  That makes all of the difference. One highlight of the day concerned a couple of vehicles that I passed about 6 times.  The first time I saw a white truck and a black Kia nose to nose.  It looked like they were jumping the truck.  They got the truck going, and then they passed me. About 6 miles down the road, here they were again doing the same thing.  We got so we laughed and waved each time.  The last time it happened the guy driving the truck stepped out and laughed and asked me if I was getting tired of seeing them.

A big highlight of the day happened when I stopped to eat something in a convenience store.  They had tables to sit and eat.  A boy about ten years old was sitting in the table next to me.  He kept looking at me, and finally got up enough nerve to ask me some questions.  He was really curious about my bike,bags, shoes, helmet, what it was like to ride so far, how old I was when I got interested in biking, etc. We got up and went outside. We looked at my bike, as he kept asking me questions.  He had ridden his bike there, so we took a look at that.  We talked about school,fishing, his home town.  It was really fun to connect.

In Hitchinson, there is a great bike shop.  I had them look at a few things on my bike, and ended up getting a key to a church hostel just a few blocks away.  So tonight I am staying in the basement of a church that is set up specifically to host cross country bike riders.  Sweet.

There were some emotional happy/sad moments, as I started looking at Facebook pages dedicated to my friend, Jeff Jelskey, who passed away on Monday.  Many of them were video's of him pontificating about life, school, his background. etc.  He loved to talk,and he loved to connect with people.  He defnitely connected with his students and with so many of the faculty.  There were lots of stories about how he went out of his way to help others feel special and part of something bigger.  He will be missed.  He will be missed.